The Years of My Movie Watch List

I did a little analysis of my Letterboxd watch list, to see if there were any interesting patterns.

Since the data export only includes the date I added it to the list, the title of the movie, and the year the film was made (and a URL back to Letterboxd), I figured I’d see how many movies I’d added to my watch list by year.

My top five years of movies by amount, somewhat unsurprisingly, lean recent. I hear about a new movie coming out that looks good, I put it on my watch list. Seems logical, and the rule holds. With one notable exception.

Amount Year
20 2022
20 2021
15 2020
12 2012
12 1987

What was happening in 1987? What was so compelling about the year after my birth that drew me to add twelve movies from that year? I needed answers, so I pulled the list of movies on my watch list from 1987. This could do nothing but illuminate.

  1. Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2
  2. Wings of Desire
  3. Where Is The Friend’s House?
  4. Empire of the Sun
  5. Fatal Attraction
  6. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
  7. Straight to Hell
  8. Bad Taste
  9. The Stepfather
  10. Near Dark
  11. The Untouchables
  12. Full Metal Jacket

Now I’m even more in the dark. Looking at this list, none of them are jumping out as must see. To be frank, if you asked me what Wings of Desire or Where Is The Friend’s House are, I’d say I’d never heard of them. I don’t know what that says about me that I would know what Straight to Hell or Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 were, but that’s the subject of a different analysis.

movies